WPeople: Stephanie King

Today we are talking to Stephanie King from UCL’s History of Art Department ahead of our upcoming Year 12 History of Art Masterclass (applications are open) on Thursday 11 April 2019. 

1.How did you come to be at UCL?

I’ve always been really interested in the arts and humanities, which was reflected in my choice of A Levels, namely, fine art, history and history of art. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to study fine art or history of art at uni, so I went back to college after my A Levels to do a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design (commonly known as the Art Foundation). This was a great experience as I got to spend a year experimenting with and exploring different art practices! However, I was still really passionate about art history and felt that I couldn’t give it up.

Unable to choose between the two, I went to Plymouth University to study a joint honours in fine art and history of art. But after my first year, I decided that I wanted to devote my time to art history – and so I switched to single honours, and I’ve been studying art history ever since!

By the time I was in the final year of my undergraduate degree I knew that I wanted to do a Masters. The History of Art MA programme at UCL was really exciting, and so I applied! The MA really broadened my knowledge of art history and led me along new lines of inquiry and introduced me to methodologies that I felt reflected my own thoughts and ideas. I also had (still have) a really inspirational tutor who fed my thirst for knowledge and pointed me in the direction of material that is now foundational to my research. After my MA, I decided to continue at UCL to study a PhD and am still working with the same supervisor!

2.What do you do at UCL?

I am currently a fourth year PhD student in the History of Art Department, which means I’m in the throws of writing up my PhD thesis. My thesis investigates British documentary photography from the 1970s and 1980s. Through the conjunction of visual representation and politics, I examine how oppositional image makers have mobilised the camera as a prism through which to scrutinise Thatcherism, as well as the mass media institutions through which that ideology has been creatively constructed and reproduced. This research is performed through a close engagement with the work of Stuart Hall and the literature that emerged from the Birmingham Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies during the seventies and eighties.

3. Why is Widening Participation important to you?

Widening Participation is important to me because I believe passionately that everybody should have access to higher education and it’s important that we ALL work towards overcoming the barriers that prevent equality of opportunity and access to good schooling. I went to a state comprehensive school, and although I took my progression on into university for granted as a teenager – in part because of very supportive parents and teachers – I know that this experience is by no means universal. For numerous, complex reasons, lots of people didn’t share these opportunities, and I want to help redress the balance.

I’m also acutely aware that there are some serious diversity issues in the humanities, in part because people are worried about the job prospects available at the end of a humanities degree and the associated costs. I am interested both in debunking myths about the kinds of skills that humanities degrees provide to those who study them (you can enter a multitude of diverse professions with an art history degree!!) as well as widening participation in the field. It’s also extremely important that our academic and cultural institutions better represent our diverse demographic in order that they become spaces that are accessible, welcoming and enjoyable places to visit and work.

4. Tell us a bit more about the masterclass you will be running?

I am going to be running a Masterclass in History of Art for Year 12 students this spring. The Masterclass will introduce students to art history as well as the History of Art Department at UCL. We will examine the diverse methods and materials that an art historian might engage with in their studies, and throughout their careers. I want to challenge the notion that art historians are connoisseurs by focusing on the ways in which the work of the art historian is to explore art’s cultural form.

Prospective students will learn about the interdisciplinary nature of art history and come to comprehend the ways in which art historians delve into subjects ranging from history, philosophy, sociology and economics, to gender studies, cultural studies, psychology (and more!!!!) to write the history of art.

I’ll introduce the students to my specialism – British documentary photography from the 1970s and ‘80s – and hope to demonstrate why I feel so passionate about the objects in question and how I developed my own particular methodological approach to them. We will consider how photographers have attempted, not merely to ‘document’ or reflect society, but to create images of society that are critical or potentially oppositional.

We will examine the seismic shifts that took place across the socio-political landscape in Britain during the post-war era, and artistic responses to, and attempts to alter these shifts. We’ll question how images continue to impact the socio-political landscape today, and how we see ourselves as subjects. Through an exploration of national identity, space and place (making), and the dialogue between institutions, modes of display and their variant publics, we will explore the essential place of critical reading skills and visual literacy in contemporary society. In turn, I will talk about some of the career paths open to art historians, from working in museums and galleries, to publishing, editing and working for Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

5. How would you describe art history to someone who has never heard of it before?

Art history is a dynamic subject that deals with visual culture through the prism of many different and diverse theoretical and methodological lenses. Examining the history of art and the art object’s cultural form, and how it is seen and circulates in society, is central to our understanding of history and how visual/material culture has shaped (not merely reflected) our beliefs, thoughts and ideas, as well as our very own self-perception and our perception of the world around us. Art history is an interdisciplinary subject that proffers visual literacy and critical thinking skills and teaches the student to be self-reflexive in their approach and to see the work from a range of critical, historical and historiographical vantage points. The subject is very rigorous, theoretically, and addresses problems that complicate chronologies and cross cut the boundaries between disciplines and geographies.

6. What would be your main bit of advice for someone thinking about studying history of art?

My main piece of advice for someone thinking about studying history of art would be: Always think critically about the information that you read, but also the images that you see!!! Images are never neutral, and once you know this, then you’re on your way to making a good art historian.

7. What would be your advice to young people who want to learn more about history of art?

If you want to learn more about art history and are intrigued by the subject, the best place to start is in an art gallery or museum – or, if you can’t make it to an art gallery, then you can explore images and objects on the internet or in books. Although art history is extremely interdisciplinary, images and objects are paramount, so start there, and see where the images take you: What themes do they address, who are the subjects, what is the material? etc.

Our History of Art Masterclass is taking place on Thursday 11 April 2019. Applications are open until Thursday 28 February 2019. 

A word from the writer:

I am a PhD candidate in the History of Art Department at UCL. I completed my MA, also in History of Art, at UCL in 2014. Before this, I studied for my undergraduate degree at Plymouth University. My review of Peter Dench’s exhibition ‘A1: Britain on the Verge’, has just been published in the journal Object. In 2017 I co-organised the conference ‘Decolonising History: Representations of Conflict in a “Post-war” Europe,’ an event funded by the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at UCL. My MA thesis Against Hegemony: (Re)Framing the ‘un- and under-employed’ was awarded the Oxford Art Journal Dissertation Prize in 2014.